


Survival Will Not Be The Hardest Part

by AngelWithAStory



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Foster Family, Character Study, Cults, Implied/Referenced Suicide, One Shot, adopted brothers au, missing scene sorta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 11:50:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11312805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelWithAStory/pseuds/AngelWithAStory
Summary: Davidwasin fact awake, and unsurprised to see Max walking towards him. All he did was extend a thermos flask and a clean mug towards Max and he settled back into the chair. Max took it and sniffed the contents. It smelled like hot chocolate, and Max rolled his eyes.Typical.Adopted Brothers AU





	Survival Will Not Be The Hardest Part

**Author's Note:**

> more adopted brothers au that no one asked for!!!  
> also I literally had the idea for this in the shower so here we are!!
> 
> I rewatched Cult Camp (literally for that banger of a song) and one thing I noticed was that Max was the first to catch on to the cult thing and the first to be shocked/afraid of it. then my brain took that and ran with it and here we are
> 
> warnings for referenced suicide/mass suicide, lightly implied child abuse and dark themes in this one
> 
> title is from 26 by Paramore

Something was touching his shoulder and Max was suddenly awake. His arm was swinging out on instinct and it wasn’t until he heard someone’s muffled grunt of pain that the sleep started to clear from his head completely.

He was breathing quickly and his shirt was sticking to his chest uncomfortably. His face felt damp and he hoped it was just sweat.

Neil was kneeling beside him, clutching his face with one hand. Max felt a flash of panic that he’d actually hurt his frie- his associate. But then Neil moved his hand away and Max could see there was no blood. Maybe in the daylight he might have a cool bruise, but at least he wasn’t bleeding.

Max couldn’t turn to remorse, so he turned to anger. That was always easier to deal with, anyway.

“What the fuck did you do?!” Max whispered angrily. If it wasn’t the middle of the night with the quartermaster on the grounds, then Max wouldn’t have held back.

“What _I_ did?” Neil repeated, his own anger starting to creep into his hushed voice. “What the fuck was that? You hit me!”

“You shouldn’t have woken me up.” Max said. He didn’t say how he hated to be touched, how he had his guard down, how he was on edge and scared. He didn’t say any of that. Instead, he hid it under all the layers of ‘ _angry little bastard_ ’ that he’d perfected over the years.

“You were talking in your sleep! You woke _me_ up.” Neil said, still rubbing his face angrily.

“What?” The flash of panic was there again. Had he said something?

“I thought you were having a nightmare, dude.” Neil finally sat back on his sleeping bag, watching Neil critically. Max hated that look. Like he could be figured out.

His hoodie lay where he left it and even though he felt gross, Max still pulled it on and shuffled towards the tent entrance.

“Where are you going?” Neil asked, not moving from his spot.

“Shut the fuck up and go to sleep.” Max said, not looking back as he left the tent.

Outside the tent was colder and Max knew he’d made a good choice in wearing his hoodie. He heard Neil shuffle inside the tent and settle down. Some part of him felt bad that he’d hit Neil, but not enough to explain why.

Max looked around.

It surprised him to see David sat at the far end of the rows of tents, sitting on a fold-out lawn chair. He was too far away to see if David was actually awake, so Max started walking towards him.

David _was_ in fact awake, and unsurprised to see Max walking towards him. All he did was extend a thermos flask and a clean mug towards Max and he settled back into the chair. Max took it and sniffed the contents. It smelled like hot chocolate, and Max rolled his eyes. Typical.

Still, Max poured some into the mug and handed David the thermos. A second chair was set up beside David’s, so Max carefully pulled himself onto it and looked out over the tents. David sipped from his mug. Max did not.

“I don’t know how much this means to you, Max,” David said quietly, breaking the fragile silence between them, “but… I’m sorry. All this business with Daniel was my fault and it almost got you hurt. I should’ve been smarter about it, but he just seemed so perfect- No. I can’t make any excuses for what happened. I’m sorry, and I promise that I’ll do better by you.”

Max couldn’t look at him. He wasn’t expecting that. Like, _at all._

Instead, he changed the subject.

“Did they ever tell you what happened to my birth mom?” Max asked, emotionally preparing himself.

“I never asked.” David admitted. “I didn’t want to know.”

“Yeah, well I want to fucking talk about it, so you’re going to listen.” Max said, half-threateningly.

“Alright.”

“The social workers told me when they took me away that my mom was part of a cult.” Max said. So few people knew this, but this was important. It was important that David knew. “They told me that when she was a teenager, she’d been kicked out by her parents and this group took her in. Gave her support and a home and a family. But they were a fucking cult, right, so they make her do fucked up shit. Like get pregnant so they can raise new members into their fucked up religion. So a few months after I was born, their leader gets arrested and all of the rest of them try to kill themselves for some kind of fucked up ritual. They were going to kill all the kids, but they’d already been taken away. We were all split up into different foster homes and given new names, you know, just in case.”

Max let his words sink in before looking up at David.

“That’s how much you fucked up, David.” Max said, letting the silence fall between them.

David looked away and Max was glad for that. He didn’t know why he shared that. All he knew was that he was angry that David was oblivious, and he was angry at Daniel for arriving at the camp, and he was angry at the whole fucking world.

David poured himself some more hot chocolate whilst Max’s grew cold. Silence stretched between them. The stars above were beautiful.

“Alright, this is getting boring.” Max said eventually, placing the mug down on the ground in front of him. “Why didn’t you want to know what happened to my mom when your stupid parents adopted me?”

Incredibly, David smiled and sat up a little in the chair.

“Because I wished they’d done that for me when they took me in.” David said. Max frowned.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“I wasn’t the first kid they took in, and I hated that they told the other kid what happened to me.” David said, sipping his drink again. “I guess they thought it might make the other kid more sympathetic, or that maybe they thought it wasn’t worth keeping secret, but I hated it. Your past is behind you, as far as I’m concerned.”

Max’s frown didn’t lessen. This wasn’t making sense. David couldn’t have been adopted, all the kids in that house were fucked up. The only thing wrong with David was his overly positive outlook on life.

David looked at Max and seemed to read his mind, because he turned slightly in his chair and placed his mug down.

“I was bounced around foster homes, as well. I was the little kid that got picked on and no one wanted, until this one really nice couple said that they’d take me in. They said that they could give me a stable home. I was maybe eleven at the time. Little older than you.” David said. He’d gone serious, like something in his memories was trying to pull him back in. But suddenly he smiled and David was back and Max had to look away. Some part of him didn’t ever want to see that look on David’s face again.

Another part of him could only think about how they were both given a second chance.

“Just so you know,” Max said, “if I grow up to be like you I’m going to kill myself.”

David laughed because he thought Max was joking. Max laughed because he wasn’t too sure himself.

“What the fuck are you doing here anyway? Don’t you have an actual bed?” Max asked, finally drinking some of the hot chocolate.

“I wanted to watch over you guys tonight. Just in case anyone needed some hot chocolate.” David said casually. Max could only wonder how many nights David sat out here, watching over the campers.

“Oh, by the way, I punched Neil in the face by accident so can you take a look at it tomorrow?” Max said.

“Is it serious?”

“He wasn’t bleeding.”

“I’ll patch him up in the morning.” David said, checking his watch. “It’s really late, Max, you should try to get some more sleep.”

“Nah, I think I’ll stay out here for a little bit longer.” Max said, refilling his mug and settling down again.

**Author's Note:**

> my tumblr's [private-doughnut](http://private-doughnut.tumblr.com) if you want some sweet sweet adopted bros headcanons
> 
> ~~as a brit it kills me to write the word 'mom' but i will do it for camp camp~~


End file.
